GOP Seeks To Deny American Kids Benefits Of Tax Credit Due To Parents' Immigration Status

January 13, 2012 12:07 pm ET —
Salvatore Colleluori

With Congress preparing to return to Washington to discuss a
yearlong extension of the payroll tax holiday, a new fight between Republicans
and Democrats is emerging over how to pay for the tax relief both parties agree
is necessary. Politico reported
yesterday that Republicans were looking to find money by "denying child tax
credit refunds to working-class immigrant parents who lack a Social
Security number." The champion of this
push is Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX):

"Last
year, illegal immigrants bilked $4.2 billion from U.S. taxpayers due to a
loophole with the refundable child tax credit," the congressman said in a floor
speech following the Treasury's IG report. "With the dire need to cut
government spending, I hope this simple fix gets a serious look as a way to
stamp out waste, fraud and abuse."

Qualifying for the Additional Child
Tax Credit doesn't require parents to have a Social Security Number — only an
Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, which is issued by the IRS, is
necessary. Far from 'bilking' money from U.S. taxpayers, undocumented
immigrants benefiting from the child tax credit are only receiving a refund
because they have paid into the system. On the whole, undocumented immigrants actually
contribute billions of dollars each year in local, state and
federal taxes.

In addition, despite the implication by Rep. Johnson that undocumented
immigrants are receiving a massive windfall, the tax credit amounts to just
$1,000 per qualifying child. The benefit can only go to households where the child in question is a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or U.S.
resident alien, meaning millions of American children benefited from the
program.

This is another attempt by Republicans
to deny American children benefits based on their parents' immigration status.
Actions such as Rep. Johnson's fall in line with the likes of anti-immigrant
Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who introduced
a birthright citizenship bill, and the Florida State Board of Education and
Florida Board of Governors, who were both recently sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center because
they were not granting in-state tuition benefits to some U.S. citizen college
students whose parents were undocumented.